Fireborn

Fireborn is a unique roleplaying game campaign setting from Fantasy Flight Games available for download through rpgnow.com and drivethrurpg.com. The GameMaster’s Handbook provides everything you need to create adventures and campaigns for this modern and mysterious setting. In the world of Fireborn, players take on the roles of powerful scions, human beings with the souls of immortal dragons, as magic begins to return to the streets of modern London.

Immortal Souls in Mortal Men

A powerful ritual has taken effect deep beneath the streets of the London, and karma has begun to pool under the city, bringing magic back into the world. With this mystical force’s resurgence, strange things have been occurring in the busy streets and winding alleys of modern London. Shadowy creatures prowl the depths beneath the city, and Londoners whisper of inexplicable accidents and miracles. Magic is slowly returning to rest of the world, but London is at the center of this new gathering of power.

As magic seeps back into reality, each scion begins to awaken to his true, and sometimes terrifying, nature. Beset by visions of fire and blood, these scions discover that they each possess the soul of an immortal dragon from an age long forgotten. The scions come from all walks of life, and players design both the background of their scion’s human and draconic sides.

While each scion has a normal human life, they must also claim a sire from the mythic past. A dragon’s sire acts as a symbol to guide his principles, rather than being an actual ancestor. Perhaps you’ll play a common street thug who finds himself attuned to the ruthless opportunism of Jormungand. Take on the mantle of an inquisitive scientist aspiring to the wisdom of the sire Ladon. Combine the features of man and dragon to create the scion that best equips you for your particular play style, and venture into the dangerous streets of London as you come to grips with your newly realized potential.

Faced with this realization regarding their identity and the discovery of incredible power, these scions must determine how they will use their newly recovered draconic memories and power. Will you seek out your former broodmates, or will you focus on hoarding treasure? Will you embrace your draconic nature in full or deny it in an attempt preserve your humanity? What are the creatures that prowl the streets of London, and what does the awakening of the scions mean for London? What does the return of magic mean for us all?

With the rise of the scions, the horrifying threat that destroyed the legendary world of the dragons has also begun to stir. What is this terrible and corruptive force, and how has it come into being? What is the goal of these shadowy enemies, and is there any hope of stopping them? These mysteries are at the heart of what the scions must seek to discover before history repeats itself and the dragon’s ancient enemy rises in full strength.

Remembering a Time of Legend

The scions have begun their awakening to their true selves, but their knowledge of their past lives is incomplete. In order to reclaim their memories, the scions must seek out objects from their ancient hordes. These items still retain karma from a bygone era, and can trigger flashbacks that will fill in the missing gaps in the scions’ knowledge.

During a flashback, the players take on the roles of their scions’ ancient selves, allowing you to play as a powerful dragon in an age of legend. Players also get to create their dragon character, building a fearsome creature that walked the earth in a time long-forgotten. Players can choose to customize their dragon’s outlook on the world and his dominant and minor breed, or they may choose to simply mirror the aspect of their scion in a dragon’s form. Whether you create your dragon from scratch or simply make him a magnified version of your scion, you will discover the secrets of your scion’s past lives by exploring flashbacks in the skin of one of these powerful creatures.

Remembering your past is vital to uncovering the mysteries of the present. The enemies that have begun to emerge are a vaguely remembered nightmare for the scions, and only by collecting the remnants of their past can they begin to understand the threat that they face.

Flashbacks to your past can uncover a wide range of things for your scion. Discover the location of a powerful artifact that you buried in a former life, or perhaps reveal a vital weakness of your enemy by experiencing the memory its defeat in the past. Scions build on their karma by recovering their memories in flashbacks. Seeking out flashback triggers not only grants your scions knowledge, but also adds to the pool of power that they may draw from.

What Is an RPG?

In a Roleplaying Game (RPG), like Fireborn, you create an alter ego, a fictional character like one of the heroes you've read about or seen in films. Using the game rules, you and your friends create characters and develop them as you play through a series of adventures. Imagine a group of detectives working together to solve a case or a company of knights sent to defeat a monster. Rather than read or watch a story, you tell it.

How is the story told? How do you decide what happens? What do you do if you and your friend disagree? That's where rules come in. Roleplaying is only half of the story; the other half is the game itself. Fireborn presents you with the rules of the game – how to design your character, how to resolve actions and how to have fun doing so. During a game of Fireborn, the players roll pools of dice to determine the outcome of combat, social intrigues, or other risky actions.

Before you start playing, you and your friends will need to decide which of you will be the game master (GM). The GM is the referee and the lead storyteller, the person who describes the game to the other players. The GM presents the stories and situations, provides the setting and its denizens, and adjudicates the rules. The other players take on the roles of the characters, around which the action primarily revolves. These characters are known as the Player Characters (PCs). They describe their intentions and actions to the GM, who then decides how their actions affect the plot. So how do you win?

The answer is up to you. The game master is not set against the heroes. Both the game master and the hero party are working together to create a memorable experience for all involved. Each session gives both parties a chance to become part of something larger. Uncover the secrets your past and the mysteries of a magic-infused modern London in Fireborn!